I played with "Meta" for a while. It is extremely unintuitive. (IMHO) This is the problems with programs like this. Are you going to spend all your time learning how to do a program, when you can get a program like Rhino 3D, and not only make paper models, but, as NASA found, it was perfect for making the Shuttles Tiles, Nike uses it to design their sneakers. The Spiderman movie sets are made in Rhino nd Rendered in some other software, as Rhino exports to something like 60 different formats. So you make a model, and you have actual dimensions. It isn't a drawing program, but is easy to use than many. It is used by major ship builders. If you design a Canoe on Rhino, you can calculate the canoe's water displacement from within the program. Anyways, my 2 cents worth, and as I have stated before, if you have a kid in school, no matter how young, you can get Rhino, the FULL working version, for $199, and this is a disc, not a download. You can install it on 3 computers. When you start using Rhino, you realize that pursuing any other program is time you could have learned new techniques in Rhino.
I really wish more of you guys would get it. I would love to start a real participatory tutorial thread with people putting forward their techniques start. Maya would be the next program I would want, but that's primarily for animation.